Heartbreak, Friendship, and Something Else
by Kirmon64
Summary: Angela is brokenhearted after Ratchet leaves her for Sasha. Clank comes to comfort her and something neither of them expects to happen takes place. /rather noncanon thanks to ToD/
1. Heartbreak

There are very few Angela fics around these days, as far as I can tell. For the most part, it's Sasha instead. So without further adieu... I present to you... ooh, it rhymes... an Angela fic! Yay? _(shrugs)_ Anyway, on with the fic!

Disclaimer: Insomniac Games owns all of this. I suppose my 'why-Angela-looks-so-different-from-Ratchet' theory belongs to me, since as far as I know it's completely non-canon, but whatever. The theory: that Ratchet is a pure lombax from Veldin, while Angela is a hybrid of one from Veldin and one from Grelbin.

This was heavily inspired by the song "Misunderstood" by Better than Ezra. Skye Sweetnam's "Number One" was a bit of an inspiration too.

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_Planet Grelbin, Tundor Wastes, Angela's house  
__1:25am local time_

She called Ratchet. But it was Clank who answered. "Hi, Clank."

He looked slightly uncomfortable. "Hello, Angela." She opened her mouth to speak, but Clank beat her to it. "...Ratchet is...away..."

The way he said it should have alerted her. "Oh... well, I thought, you know, that you guys could visit for a while."

The little robot smiled slightly. "I will come. Ratchet... I am not sure he will be able to."

Angela cocked her head slightly in a 'why' gesture.

Clank fidgeted a bit. "He..." he heaved a robotic sigh. "I will be blunt. He has a girlfriend. A close girlfriend."

The answer hit her like a ton of carbonox. They talked for a while longer, but Clank could tell that her mind was elsewhere, so he politely excused himself and logged off. Angela buried her head in her hands, almost wishing that she had never called.

_Two weeks later...  
__10:58pm local time_

Angela started when the doorbell rang. She rose to get the door and then smiled, seeing it was Clank. "Hi."

Clank looked up at her, slightly worried. Her eyes appeared red and puffy - more than likely from crying. "Are you... alright?" he asked, stepping into the house.

Angela nodded, but it was apparent that she wasn't. "Where are you sleeping?" she asked.

Clank shrugged. "Where do you have a power outlet? I will sleep there and recharge."

Angela led him into another room. "It's my bedroom, but it's the only room that's got a recharge socket."

The robots left the few things he'd brought there, and they went back out into the main room. Angela looked down at Clank, and half-smiled. "Normally, I'd ask if you wanted something to eat, but..."

Clank returned the smile. "It is alright."

"Do you mind if I...?"

The robot shook his head. The lombax moved away into another room and poured herself a glass of Grelbian ale. An alcoholic beverage. She'd been drinking a lot of it over the past two weeks. Coming back into the living room, she saw that Clank had made himself at home on the couch. He looked at her disapprovingly. "Angela, that is alcoholic."

She sat down beside him, surprised. "How do you know?"

"After that Protopet business, Ratchet came of age to be allowed to drink. He... delighted... in trying many different varieties. I learned to differentiate between different kinds so I would know the best way to... er... calm him down." He looked Angela straight in the eye. "For example, _that_ is Grelbian ale and Ratchet would have a terrible headache the morning after drinking it."

Angela shook her head, amused, at the sheer oddity of it. A robot knowing the properties of drinks better than three-quarters of the organics in the galaxy... She took a sip of her own drink, sighed, and set it down on the table. Clank laid a comforting hand on her arm. "If it is any consolation, I know how you feel."

"Really?"

He nodded miserably. "Do you remember that female infobot, Marie?"

"The one that Qwark almost killed?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath, even though technically he didn't breathe. "She left my apartment on Endako a few days before Ratchet and I returned to Solana. I never saw her again."

Angela felt sorry for Clank. "Do you know what happened to her?"

He nodded, looking even more miserable if that was possible. "She is married to a wealthy Smolgian robot."

Angela's heart went out to the little robot. She wanted to console him somehow, but she knew that nothing she said would really help. Without thinking, the lombax pulled him onto her lap and began to stroke his head. By the time she realized what she was doing, it had been at least five minutes. But he hadn't objected at all. Angela looked down at Clank. He looked almost 'asleep'; his eyes were closed and he was laying very still. But he couldn't be; when he slept, he drew his head, legs, and arms into his body like a turtle, and right now they weren't. He couldn't be asleep. Could he? Clank began to shift, so she resumed stroking his head. Carefully, so as not to disturb her peaceful companion, Angela reached over to grab the remote for her vid-screen. She flicked through the channels, hoping to find something interesting. After going through all 280 channels twice, she finally realized what she was doing. But that didn't matter, since she was so comfortable... She shifted into a laying posture, hugging Clank's warm body to hers. She just managed to shut the vid-screen off before the remote slipped from her hand and landed softly on the thick carpet. Neither robot nor lombax stirred after that.

_Later that night...  
__01:46am local time_

Angela moved groggily after hearing her name being called. Clank...? No, it was a higher-pitched voice, more like... "Cassie?" Angela sat up, curious as to why her lombax friend would be at her house. Gently moving the semiconscious Clank over, she rose and unlocked her front door. A Grelban lombax leapt in, covered from head to foot in snow. She shook herself like a dog, spraying snow everywhere. She was about Angela's height and build. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail like Angela's, except long bangs covered one eye and it was sky blue. Her fur was silvery-white with purple stripes, and, like Angela, she was tailless. "The village... it's under attack!" she gasped, trying her best to catch her breath.

Angela drew in a breath sharply. The village that Cassie belonged to was a nomadic one, moving throughout the Tundor Wastes, and as result, their defenses were very weak - especially when dealing with off-world threats. "Cassie!" she asked urgently, "What's attacking?"

"Robots..." she panted. "...And YETIs... there were reports of a leviathan too..."

Robots... the only robots near the Tundor Wastes were deep underground in the raritanium mines... but there was no way that the YETIs would team up with them anyway. But Cassie wasn't a liar, so it had to be true. "Where?"

Cassie gestured and Angela slid a GPS unit into her hand. Quickly, the white lombax typed in the co-ordinates. The yellow lombax glanced down at them, then sprinted into her bedroom. A minute later she emerged, wearing her old thief armor, minus the mask and cape. Her modified Lancer and Gravity Bomb weapons along with an unmodified Plasma Storm were strapped to her belt, as well as a metallic tube of some sort, a canister, and a pouch. A Multi-Star Launcher was attached to her wrist. She dashed to the door, pausing just long enough to say, "Stay here, Cassie." In those few seconds, Clank leapt and neatly attached himself to her back. She hesitated a moment, then ran out into the freezing cold climate of the Tundor Wastes.


	2. Friendship

Thanks for all the reviews! _(hugs)_

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_Planet Grelbin, Tundor Wastes  
__01:49am local time_

Angela leapt off of the small precipice to the right of her house, landing knee-deep in a snowdrift. She struggled out of it, into less deep snow, then hopped and clicked her heels together, activating her charge boots. The duo rocketed across the snow, floating several centimeters above it. "Angela." A calm voice said from her back. "There are YETIs approaching at nine and five o'clock." Angela veered to the right and the YETI that was about to slash her ended up hitting another YETI. Snow, fur, and blood flew everywhere as the two groups of arctic monsters collided and fought amongst themselves. Angela and Clank glided away, untouched.

"Tell me, " Angela began, eyes flicking between the terrain ahead of her and the GPS unit in her hand. "Do you and Ratchet do that a lot?"

"Actually, yes. It allows him to watch where he is going, he tells me." There was silence for a while. "Left."

"What?"

"LEFT!"

Angela banked sharply to the left as a blast of ice from a leviathan's mouth behind her just barely missed. "Thanks. We would've been goners there..." the lombax said, shaken.

"Do not mention it."

For another ten minutes they zoomed along. Distant cries of pain could be heard, along with artillery being fired and the occasional howl of a YETI or leviathan. Angela righted herself at the crest of a snowbank looking down into a sort of valley. The shelters of the nomads were mostly in flames. White shapes - lombaxes and YETIs - could be seen running through the smoke, along with the occasional metallic glimmer that signified a robot. On the far side of the valley there were repeated white flashes, a sure sign of the presence of leviathans.

"DUCK!"

By now, Angela was used to acting the moment Clank spoke, and she crouched instantly. A YETI went sailing over her head, faceplanting into a snowbank. With a growl, it leapt up and advanced. Angela pulled the metal tube off of her belt and activated it. A shimmering blue stream of plasma erupted from one end, snaking through the frigid air as if it had a will of its own. The YETI continued to move forward, although more cautiously now.

PSSSHHHTTT!

Angela swung the Quantum Whip, catching the YETI across the chest. Angry now, it charged.

PSSSHHHTTT! SNAP! SHHHAAP!

Angela swung the whip again, hitting the monster's legs and waist. It charged again, and Angela barely had time to flip to the side to avoid its slash.

FWWAPP!

This time, she jumped and brought the whip down with all the force she could muster, hitting the beast on the top and front of its head. It stumbled back, dazed, shaking blood from its eyes. Giving a mournful howl, it turned and ran. The lombax looked back toward the battleground. Another lombax, barely visible in the thick smoke, backed up slowly from the robot in front of him. Before long, his back was to a wall; he was trapped. Angela swapped her Quantum Whip for her Lancer, aimed, and got the robot right in the head. It turned toward her, but before it could move anymore, another shot went through its chest and finished it off. She ran down into the ruined camp and up to the wounded lombax's side. He was breathing heavily, blood pouring out of multiple YETI-induced wounds. Angela pulled the canister off of her belt and opened it, forcing the lombax to drink some of its contents. Almost immediately, he seemed to relax as the Nanotech did its work, healing cuts, replacing spilt blood. "Hide in the snowdrifts." She told him, then ran deeper into the smoky camp. So thick was the smoke that she almost ran slap-bang into a group of robots that were terrorizing several lombaxes. She whipped out her Gravity Bomb and fired.

Broing...

All twenty robots turned toward the sound.

BOOOOOOMMMMMM!

And then they were reduced to a pile of scrap parts.

One of the very young children was shaking an elderly lombax. "Gramma, pweeze wake up! Pweeze!" Angela knelt in the snow and felt the old woman's skin. She was cold. Deathly cold. She looked up at an older lombax and shook her head slightly. The pale yellow male gestured to another female, presumably his sister, and she gathered up the now silently crying child. Angela pointed the way she came. "If you keep traveling that way, you'll get out of this smoke pretty quick. You should be able to find a male lombax near there. Good luck." She turned to go, but the yellow lombax grabbed her arm, smiled, and bowed slightly in an expression of thanks. She smiled back, thinking of how much he reminded her of Ratchet - he certainly had at least some Veldan blood in him, what with his fur color and height. With some difficulty, she pulled her Multi-star Launcher off of her wrist and gave it to him, deciding that it would probably be more useful to him than to her. He bowed once more, then hurried his family group in the direction she had pointed. Angela set off in the opposite direction, hoping to find more survivors.

* * *

Two YETIs menaced four small figures huddled near the gutted remains of a house. Her Lancer defeated one YETI before it even knew what was going on. She cautiously circled the other YETI as it tried to decide whether or not to attack her. "Run!" she yelled to the four. They began to run, but one stumbled and they all stopped. The YETI, distracted, looked back and forth between Angela and the other four, and she took that opportunity to attack.

TSEEEW!

The moment the YETI looked away, she brought her Lancer up and fired a charged shot at its neck, fusing its spine from the heat and killing it instantly. Sure that there were no more enemies in the immediate vicinity, she turned toward the four. To her surprise, two of them were pure Veldan lombaxes, a rare occurrence on Grelbin, and the other two were robots. And one of the robots looked exactly like Clank. She glanced behind her, half expecting to see Clank not on her back. But he was still there, dutifully watching for any enemies behind her. Shaking her thoughts off, she turned back to the four. The girl lombax was limping, something metal embedded in her leg. Angela squatted in the snow and opened the vial of Nanotech, beckoning her over. The girl looked at her companions for a second, eyebrows raised, then limped forwards and held out her leg. Carefully, Angela pulled the metal shard out and poured a small amount of Nanotech on the wound, also making her drink a small amount. She then turned to the robots. "Go in that direction and stay hidden. Eventually, you'll come to another group of lombaxes who will most likely be near or in a snowdrift. You'll be safer with them than in here." She smiled briefly and rose. "Good luck."

"You too." The girl replied, grinning. "See you around." She led the other three away through the smoke.

Angela watched them for a few seconds. "You okay, Clank?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"I've been better." They moved off again.

* * *

Three leviathans rose out of the glacial depths beneath the thick ice sheet that made the Tundor Wastes. Each of the holes that they had punched through the ice with their thick-domed skulls was more than ten feet across. The massive dark blue body that rose out of each hole was well over twenty feet tall - and that was less than a third of the leviathan's total length. The single moonstone embedded in each of their skulls powered the beams of ice that they shot from their gaping, needle-toothed mouths. The large fin-like ears and chin antennae waved as each head moved, searching for a new target. All in all, it was an awe-inspiring sight. 

But not for Angela and Clank.

They had seen too many innocent lombaxes fall prey to one of the ice beams or worse yet, getting too close and being snatched up and... well, suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty. "I think it's time we sent these three back to where they came." Angela said grimly, equipping her Plasma Storm. Blue plasma crackled lazily from the weapon's center to its three carbonox prongs, and would occasionally drip to the ground, making the snow evaporate.

"I agree."

Angela started toward the rightmost monster, carefully keeping out of sight. She tensed to run out into the open and fire - the smoke was too thick and the distance too great for her to aim accurately.

"Angela? Be careful."

The yellow lombax dashed across the snow, firing as she went.

PSSSHHOW! ZAP! ZAP! ZZZZAAP!

The smallest leviathan, the one on the right, roared in pain and fury as the ball of supercharged plasma hit its side. It jerked its head in her direction, a ball of ice building in its mouth. Angela didn't let it get any farther. Two times her finger pulled the trigger.

PSSSHHOW! PSSSHHOW! ZAP! ZZZZAAP! ZZZZAAPZAP!

The leviathan gave a moan of defeat and its upper body crashed down onto the ice, then slid back down into the depths. A single moonstone rolled down the hill, toward Angela. Quickly, she gathered it up, slipping it into a pouch on the back of her belt. By then the other two leviathans had turned toward her. One of them, the center leviathan, was almost done building the sphere of ice in its mouth. With wide eyes, Angela slowly backed up. The leviathan fired.

KKKKSSSSHHHHEEW!

She sideflipped, but the beam caught her legs, sending her sprawling in the snow. She rolled, the ice beam from the second leviathan missing her by only a few centimeters. Springing up, she unleashed three plasma orbs at the left leviathan.

PSSSHHOW! PSSSHHOW! ZZAAAP! Z-ZAP!

One missed, but the other two struck it in the face. It moaned, swinging its head around blindly, dark blue blood pouring from its ruined eyes. The center leviathan nudged it with its snout, and it retreated down its hole. The remaining leviathan turned toward Angela. There was something in its eyes... something that none of the other leviathans had...

Intelligence.

It let out a mournful cry, then slowly began to sink back down into the water. And then it was gone. Angela turned away from the now vacant holes, back to the ruined village. The robots had all but disappeared, but the YETIs were still visible.

"MOVE!" Clank shouted from her back.

She did, half turned to see the leviathan back, a beam of ice coming out of its mouth. The ice hit her, and she could feel Clank being ripped from her back.

And then all was black.


	3. Something else, part 1

Angela and Clank might seem a tad OOC in this chapter. Sorry if they are. Clank is a little tough to write for me, and I haven't played Going Commando in for goodness knows how long...

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_Planet Grelbin, Tundor Wastes  
__3:28am local time_

Angela awoke to the frigid Grelbian wind. Shivering, she stood up and took stock of her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was the ice beam from the leviathan hitting her and Clank... Clank! Frantically, she looked around for the little robot, but he was nowhere to be found. Feeling very alone, she moved toward the valley, knowing that she would be more sheltered from the wind there. The lombax looked down into it, expecting to see the ruined buildings. Instead, there was only more snow.

Where was she?

_Somewhere else on the tundra...  
__3:30am local time_

Clank took stock of his surroundings. He was on the crest of a snowdrift, where he wasn't sure. Angela was nowhere to be seen, although her Lancer was laying in the snow nearby. He picked it up, trying to hold it as well as keep his balance. Then, he walked in a random direction, hoping to find either Angela or the village.

Preferably Angela.

_Somewhere else on the tundra...  
__3:32am local time_

Angela tried to calm herself. But she knew, having lived on Grelbin for nearly her whole life, that if someone was on the tundra and had no shelter, then they were as good as dead. Clank would be fine for a couple days, at least if the YETIs left him alone. But an organic...

She moved down into the valley, pulling her Quantum Whip off of her belt - the only weapon that she had left. She had barely activated it when a giant furry paw swiped it from her hand, its claws slashing her side. The whip went flying, deactivated, as she screamed in pain, holding her side where the YETI's claws had hit her. It growled, moving cautiously forward a few steps. There were burn marks on its chest, waist, and legs, as well as a bright red one on the top of its head. This was the YETI that she'd almost killed earlier, and now it was back for revenge.

_Somewhere else on the tundra...  
__3:32am local time_

Clank stopped after hearing a scream.

A female's scream.

Angela.

He sprinted as fast as his little legs could carry him toward the sound, stopping on top of a snowdrift. Angela and a YETI were in a valley, the YETI approaching the injured and defenseless lombax. Clank charged the Lancer, took aim, and managed to get the beast on its lower back. With a moan, the huge creature crumpled into the snow, dead. Apparently, it had already been wounded. Discarding the Lancer, Clank ran down the hill as Angela sat down hard in the snow, holding her side. "Clank!" she shouted, seeing him.

The little robot virtually flung himself on her, happily shouting, "You are all right!" They sat there for a while, hugging each other. "You are hurt." Clank said matter-of-factly.

Angela nodded. "I know." She tried to move but moaned when the pain level shot up. Clank looked over her belt, trying to find her container of Nanotech. But it was gone, lost with the rest of Angela's weapons. Carefully, the lombax leaned against a hill. "You've gotta go get some help. There's no way the YETIs _won't_ smell me bleeding..."

"No."

Angela was startled at Clank refusing so blatantly. "Clank, I need Nanotech. There's no way you'll find any out here."

"Perhaps. But if I leave, I will need a weapon. Your Quantum Whip was destroyed when the YETI attacked you, you will need your Lancer for protection, and your other weapons are nowhere to be found." He folded his arms stubbornly. "The only way I am leaving is either on your back or by your side."

She was touched by his loyalty, but she knew it would be his death. She was already as good as dead, now she only wanted Clank to be safe. "Clank, you must-"

"I'M NOT LEAVING YOU HERE!" he shouted.

Angela jerked back, surprised immensely. It was probably melting snow, but she thought she saw a tear slide down his metal 'cheek'.

"I am not leaving without you." He whispered fiercely. "I am not."

"Clank..." Angela said slowly, "You used a contraction..."

Now he looked just as surprised as her. "I did?"

"Yeah." She opened her mouth to argue with him again, but thought better of it. Instead, she gave a tired smile. "Well, if you're not going anywhere, come and keep me warm."

Carefully, so as not to touch her injured side, Clank allowed himself to be held by Angela. "Curl up." He instructed her. "It will conserve your body heat and allow my heat to spread to your legs."

Angela did as Clank told her and closed her eyes, the contented smile still on her face. She fell asleep like that, the little robot held tightly against her chest.

_Later...  
__5:19am local time_

Clank was worried. Angela was getting colder by the minute. And so was he. Once his own body heat ran out, Angela wouldn't last another hour. He was about to prod her awake when she spoke. "...Clank..." she murmured.

He froze. "I am here." He said cautiously.

She was silent. Clank tried to wiggle out of her grasp, deciding she had been dreaming. "...I love you..." she murmured.

Clank froze again, eyes wide. She _what_?!

"...Ratchet..." she finished, shifting in her sleep.

The robot relaxed and squirmed out of her grasp. But he felt a pang of some strange feeling. Jealousy, perhaps? "Angela." He said softly, shaking her slightly. "We must try to move."

She groaned and tried to move, but yelped in pain. "My side..." she said, teeth clenched. "It hurts..."

"You must try. You will not survive here."

She tried to get up, but fell back into the snow. "I can't feel my legs, Clank." She said in a small voice. "They're numb."

The little robot moved beside her long legs. He sat on one and rubbed the other to try to warm them up. He looked at the area where she had been slashed. The three cuts were mostly scabbed over, but the skin around them was blue.

Frostbite.

"Angela," he began, choosing his words carefully, "Can you feel everywhere else?"

"No." She admitted. "My back is numb too. And my nose and ears are getting there." Then she gasped. "What are you doing?"

Clank stopped pinching her leg. "I am trying to distinguish the frostbitten parts of your leg from the healthy parts." Immediately he regretted saying that.

"...Frostbite." Angela said, her voice betraying no emotion. "Well Clank, you might as well just leave now and try to find a village." She laughed emotionlessly. "A lot of help that'd do me." She added bitterly.

Clank was silent.

Angela sighed. "Come here."

Obediently, he rose and moved to her side, looking up at her face. She gathered him up in her arms, positioning him so that his back was to her chest. She hugged him to her for a second before releasing him. She smiled sadly, leaning her head on top of his. "Listen Clank, I won't make it. There's no way now. But if you leave now, you might find someone and you can come back for my..." she took a deep breath "...my body."

Clank returned her smile, even though she couldn't see it. "I am not leaving, Angela. You will have to chase me."

Angela snorted. "And Ratchet told me that you didn't have a sense of humor."

"I have my moments." Silence. "Angela?" Clank twisted around in the lombax's grip to look at her face. Her eyes were closed and she was still. Too still. He breathed a sigh of relief when her eyelids flickered in response. "You cannot fall asleep... You may not wake up..."

"...But I'm so sleepy..."

Suddenly, Clank did something he never thought he'd do.

He slapped her.

Angela jerked back, eyes opened wide.

"_Stay_. _Awake_." He said fiercely. "I am _not_ going to lose you."

Maybe it was the fact that she was nearly asleep from the cold, maybe it was because she figured that she wouldn't be alive in another half hour, or maybe it was for some other reason, but whatever the reason was, Angela wasn't exactly sure of why she did what she did.

She kissed him.

A few seconds later, they looked up at a roaring sound. It was a ship. And it was coming toward them.

The ship landed close beside them and the pale yellow lombax that Angela had saved earlier leapt out. He gathered her up in his arms, smiling reassuringly.

They were saved.


	4. Something else, part 2

Wow... I've actually finished a multi-chapter story... _(is amazed)_ Anyway... now I'm just going to have to work on a sequel :)

And thank you, for all your reviews!

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_Three Days later...  
Planet Grelbin, Tundor Wastes, Angela's house  
9:46am local time_

Angela yawned as she sat down on the couch. She still couldn't believe that she was home, and whole. She'd had a miraculous recovery, the doctors had told her, and probably wouldn't have lasted as long as she did without Clank there. Speaking of Clank... She looked over at the little robot. He was absorbed in her ruined Quantum Whip, trying his level best to fix it. If he were organic, his tongue would've been sticking out of the side of his mouth. Angela entertained herself with that image for a moment, then laughed. Clank looked up. "What?"

"You just look so cute when you're concentrating." She reached over, picked him up, laid down, and hugged him to her. She grabbed the remote and began to flick through the channels. She stopped on _Secret Agent Clank_.

"I did not think that you could watch that in Bogon." Clank commented.

"Shh! It's coming on!"

After watching Maxmilian getting defeated yet again by 'Agent Clank,' Angela asked, "How many Maxmilians were there, exactly?"

"...I can assure you that it was well over one. Most likely two per episode."

Angela laughed.

Suddenly, Clank grew quiet. "...Angela..." he began tentatively. He rolled to face her. "At the end, just before we were rescued..." It took him a few seconds to work up enough courage to finish. "...What was that?"

She looked away, across the room. "Just... A spur-of-the-moment thing, I guess..." she replied softly.

"...Oh..."

The lombax looked down at her little robot companion. He looked crestfallen at her reply. "...But I liked it..." she finished.

A grin grew on Clank's face. He sat up.

And kissed her.

And Angela returned it.

* * *

And there you have it... more than likely the first and only Angela/Clank pairing in the world.

It sure solves the dilemma of whether Ratchet should be with Sasha or Angela XD


End file.
